En Passant...Part 2

“You’ve certainly gone about making yourself at home here, haven’t you my friend?”

I couldn’t believe my ears, I looked up in surprise to see John Red Bear standing just outside the tangled roots of the Tree. I looked back from him to the image on the leaf that I was holding in my hands, and back up to him again, dumbfounded. “But...”

He snickered, glanced at his own image on the leaf and then looked back into my eyes, “Nice likeness, eh?”

“But I thought a fallen leaf meant that you had died!” I managed to stammer out.

“It does.” He had an impish look to his face, like he was holding back some humorous secret. “But in this case, it is foretelling my demise. I gave my permission for the leaf to be released while you were here.”

“What? You’re going to die soon? And you’re laughing about it?”

He laughed, a deep hearty laugh. “Consider it an occupational hazard of being a Shaman. I’ve known for quite a while that my time was growing very short. Indeed, when I met your former comrade, the Haitian, I thought my time was over at that point, since I had seen that face in a Dream since I was a youth. His face was always associated with my death. But when you and Herne rescued me, and the Frau healed me, I realized that I had just a little while longer. I must thank you very much for that, because this additional time has allowed me to set my earthly affairs in order and be better prepared for what is to come.”

“But how can you be so casual about this, about dying?”

He walked into the circle of roots, came up and put his arm around my shoulders. “Look, when much of your life is spent in exploring the majesty and the mysteries of the Three Worlds, you find that there is very little to fear in the passing from the One into the Three. Death is not only the end of one journey, but also the beginning of many others.”

We were now walking among the roots, his arm over my shoulders. We came to the trunk of the Tree and he took his arm off, reached out a tentative hand and touched the bark with his fingertips.

“I must say that I very impressed. I have never seen another Tree like this one. What happened here?”

In halting words, unsure of the reality of any of this, I explained what I could remember of my encounter with El Diablito and my fears at the time when I could not get into contact with anyone. I then told him about driving the baton into the ground and the emotion and energy that I had charged it with, hoping that it would serve as a beacon and warning to any who answered my impassioned Calls.

As I told the story, he had kept his fingers in contact with the metallic bark, had closed his eyes, and seemed to be only half listening to what I was saying. My voice kind of trailed off as I watched him and ended my story.

He remained there for a moment longer, then openned his eyes and pushed back from the Tree. “You have created something here that is both strange and wonderful. In all of my journeys throughout the Three Worlds, I have heard many tales of such Beings existing, but this is the first such one I have actually encountered. This is a very rare and special event.

“You have here a treasure beyond all measure, a resource that will help you to do much good with your remaining time in the One World. I am glad that you will have a true guide in the coming time when I will be unable to be here for you.” A tear trickled down his cheek.

It was hard to hear, to see this emotion from the man who had shown me how to take control of my own existence again, the one person who had reached out and prevented me from becoming the monster I was heading towards turning into. I looked down at my shoes, scuffed some dirt from a nearby root. “John, I can’t thank you enough for helping me when you did. If you hadn’t been there for me, I don’t know what I would have turned into.”

He reached out with both hands, gripped my shoulders with his talon-hard fingers, “Rusty, you are on a special kind of journey, a journey of redemption and salvation, for yourself and for others you have yet to meet. There are challenges coming to the One World that may change it forever. There are dangers that must be met and overcome if Balance is to be restored and maintained. You are not alone in facing these challenges, these dangers, but you are vitally important. Learn from the Tree, master your strengths, overcome your weaknesses, and you will have repaid my efforts a hundredfold.

“It was my role to find you and prepare you for the first steps on your Journey. The existence of this Tree here and now, tells me more than anything else, that you are now ready to begin that Journey.”

I couldn’t hold back anymore, “But what about the image I have seen of my daughter and ex? They are in danger, I can’t be worrying about saving the world when they are in such danger!”

“I understand your concern, and that is another reason I am here to see you now. The Professor has been able to locate where your former Director has established his headquarters, it is a place in the Everglades near Miami. Ravyn Fyre has asked me to seek you out and let you know this information, and that we have as an organization have found it to be a good time to prepare a strike against this enemy.

“Our plans are just now shaping up, but we wanted to get you involved as well, since we know how important it is to you.”

“I saw the image of that bastard taking my daughter and ex into a building in the a swamp, that was probably the place. It is pretty inaccessible from what I saw, he was gathering his own strength, I think he is expecting at least me!”

“Yes, but we will have some surprises of our own for him and his followers. I think he will have taken your family as bait and likely as insurance as well. But here is what we would like to do...”